


just another day

by prosodiical



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: F/F, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 04:54:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2838761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prosodiical/pseuds/prosodiical
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aoi and Sakura, before the beginning of the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	just another day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lirillith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirillith/gifts).



Meditation is something of a useless pursuit, these days, but Sakura has her habits ingrained. Legs crossed, eyes closed, and she tries once again to slow her breathing and clear her mind of what bothers her, but it has been difficult to put aside her grief after her dojo fell. She can still see the grainy video whenever she closes her eyes, her family gone, the building in flames - her entire life and purpose, gone in that instant.

There is a knock on Sakura's door, and she knows there is only one person it can be. "Come in," she calls out, eyes still shut, and the door opens and clicks closed once again.

"Hey, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura opens her eyes, smiling. "Asahina-san."

"Aoi, I've told you," Asahina says, with a good-natured roll of her eyes; she holds out a hand because she knows already Sakura will take it. Sakura does, lifting herself to her feet with the help of Asahina's deceptive strength.

"Thank you, Asahina-san."

"Oh," Asahina sighs, with a good-natured roll of her eyes. "You'll never say it, will you? Sakura-chan..." There's something lost and distant in her expression, something that has been growing these last few months, and Sakura wants to wipe it away. Asahina's face is made for smiles and laughter, but both have been growing scarce lately, and Sakura can do nothing but pull an arm around her and hold her close. Asahina's smile comes, but it's tempered with something Sakura hesitates to call _despair_. "We're never getting out of here, are we?" she asks, muffled into Sakura's side.

"Have faith," Sakura says, keeping her voice quiet. "Please, Asahina-san." But Sakura's own doubts - why are they nailing plates to the windows during the school day, or mounting screens and cameras in every room and guns on the external walls, if this isn't planned to be long-term, if the Headmaster doesn't plan for them to stay here forever - keep her from saying more, and Asahina must see it in her face when she looks up. 

"You think so too, don't you?" she whispers. "Us, just us sixteen, locked in this place..."

"There are amenities," Sakura says, in a desperate attempt at reassurance. "A pool and a dojo for us, the music hall for Maizono-san - "

"It's so stuffy in here!" Asahina cries, and Sakura bites down on her response and just closes her eyes, pulling in Asahina as she sobs dry into Sakura's uniform. "I - I can't... the Headmaster said today," she looks up at Sakura with wild eyes, "that we can't go out for runs outside the school anymore, that it's not safe, that they're catching onto us - Sakura," she whispers, "I think - we're just going to end up like everyone else." _Dead,_ Sakura thinks, _or worse_.

"Do not despair," Sakura murmurs, and Asahina laughs, a little hiccup, and tugs at Sakura's collar, pulling her into a kiss. It tastes of her tears and desperation, and Sakura tries to provide her reassurance, for it is the least she can do. "Asahina-san," she says, and Asahina laughs again, tangling her fingers in Sakura's hair and dragging her down. 

"Please," Asahina breathes, "let me hope again."

And what can Sakura do, in the face of her? Sakura's bed is only a few steps away, and she lets Asahina push her back, her face a study in contrasts, the dark fall of her still-damp hair covering the anxiety in her eyes and the firm, stubborn set of her mouth as she slides her hands up to tangle in Sakura's hair. "I will protect you," Sakura says, and Asahina laughs.

"Of course you will," she says, "that's what I'm worried about, you know. More than anything," and she says the last against Sakura's mouth, her hair a curtain from the world around them like it's some terrible secret, and Sakura leans up to kiss her. Asahina falls into it like salvation and Sakura feels like she's drowning, holding onto her with both hands as she flails in waters they know how to swim. Sakura's hands rub small, comforting circles into the divots of Asahina's hipbones and when they pull apart Asahina hides a trembling smile into Sakura's neck.

"Asahina-san," Sakura says, quiet, "We will get through this, together."

"Yeah," Asahina says, "It's just hard sometimes, you know? I mean, our families, our homes... Why'd it have to be us, stuck in here? I just... I want to get out there and fight, but instead..."

"I know." And Sakura does, can feel her own skin itching for better facilities, better resources - and what she doesn't want to admit to herself, freedom and justice if not revenge. But the Despair Foundation is out there, pervasive like a virus and just as destructive, the world is an inch away from wholesale destruction, and they have all placed their trust in the school and the Headmaster already. Now is no time to complain or rebel, despite how much they might want to. Sakura tries not to think about the contracts she spied on the Headmaster's desk, the silent spreading awareness among them all that there is no escape, not anymore. This might be their life now and forever. "I know," she repeats, and it feels superfluous, but the necessary words are lost on her tongue.

Asahina lifts herself up and smiles, stilted. "Yeah," she says. "Thanks."

"Anything," Sakura says, and manages a smile, small but true. "Perhaps we should take a run around the school corridors?"

"Aw, Ishimaru-kun'll be shouting at us," Asahina says, her expression lightening. "Want to see how long it takes for him to catch us? I'll make some protein-powder donuts and we can have a picnic in the garden after, too."

"Protein shakes," Sakura offers as a compromise, and Asahina pouts. Sakura presses her smile into Asahina's collarbone as she strokes her fingers lightly down Asahina's ticklish sides.

"Okay, okay, no protein donuts," Asahina gasps, squirming, and bats away Sakura's fingers, pinning her wrists above her head. "You," Asahina says with intent, "are going to make it up to me, though," and Sakura smiles.

"Of course," she says. "I'm looking forward to it."


End file.
